


First Things First (This time It's my way)

by Vault13 (Feuercrux)



Category: Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: Gen, Non-Graphic Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-27
Updated: 2013-02-27
Packaged: 2017-12-03 20:16:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,555
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/702205
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Feuercrux/pseuds/Vault13
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Daryl reflects on how things have never really changed between him and Merle, even when the world changes around them.<br/>SPOILERS A missing scene between leaving the bridge and returning to the prison.</p>
            </blockquote>





	First Things First (This time It's my way)

**Author's Note:**

> Just a few thoughts that were running through my head about Daryl's loyalty to Merle, even when it's not all that deserved.

The fire crackled, louder than he liked but things like this they didn’t come with a volume control. It was little things like a fire, loud on dry tinder that surprised him. He had grown up being able to sleep under the stars and build a fire never with any fear of anything but normal people finding him. He’d never considered the thought that he’d rather freeze than risk the fire blindness that he’d get from staring at the flames for too long, watching the careless flickering dance that seemed too beautiful, something living and breathing in a world that was so very dead.

He wouldn’t have lit the fire, it was too much of a beacon for anything, living or dead to come to them, even up higher on an outcrop above the woodland floor it was still nowhere near defended enough for his liking. He had pitched camp in so many different places now he seemed to be getting fussy about it, though the truth was he was starting to get comfortable in the relative peace of the prison. At least he was warm and dry there.

That and the threat of being eaten in the middle of the night was a damn sight smaller than it was when you were out here, in the ass crack of nowhere, with a fire this bright and damn the noise coming from Merle was a step away from just ringing the dinner bell. It was a gamble he didn’t like, he never had been a gambling man but it seemed for Daryl, when it came to his brother it seemed he was always taking chances.

When he had walked away from the bridge, bare backed and ego bruised he hated Merle with ever fibre of his being and he’d not hated him like that since he had been taken off to Juvi the first time, leaving him to deal with their father and almost gloating as to why he had been sent there in the first place, for things that Daryl hardly understood let alone could understand why he was proud of it. 

All he saw was that his big brother that had always protected him in his own strange way, was now gone and he was left with wave after wave of people that wanted to take their frustrations with Merle out on him. Beatings were common place, threats daily but Daryl could deal with that because he knew that it wasn’t him, he hadn’t done anything and well, didn’t he owe Merle this, for looking after him. Well, Merle didn’t let anyone beat him, that was Merles job, he called it tough love, but it was the only love Daryl had ever had growing up. How was he supposed to know different?

You tended to remember your firsts, First time you rode your bike without the stabilisers on, first time you saved up your pocket money to buy that toy you wanted, first girl you kissed, things like that. Daryl had some of those memories, but the one that stuck out as he seemed to stare into the flames remembering ‘the other world’ as he had started to think of it as, was the first tooth he lost.

“Whatcha doin’ smallfry?” That low, rough drawl startled him, as he whipped round, finger still in his mouth as he stood, narrow back against the bathroom sink and looked over at Merle leaning in the open doorway. He strained for a moment listening, the snores were still there, the old man was still out cold on the couch so he thanked his lucky stars for that at any rate.

At eight years old, Daryl was small for his age, skinny with a Georgia tan, hair paler in the sunlight, large eyes always suspicious, always watching he had had to learn fast that he was little more than a rat in a barrel, and the dogs were barking. He was always a little behind everyone else when he was younger, couldn’t read as well as the other kids, didn’t really know his sums that well either, he was fast enough, but too small for sports and well… dressed in thrift store clothes it wasn’t as if anyone ever wanted to spend much time around him. He always did wonder if it was him, or Merle’s reputation that kept everyone away from him when he was younger. Still, he was growing older and was having to adapt with his brothers temper if he was looking to survive the summer it seemed. 

Merle was home on leave for the sticky heat that summer brought with it. Home when Merle was in the army seemed to equate to little more than a four week bender and enough fights to make his weeks back in the army afterwards difficult for himself. Right now though he stood there, that smirk on his face that didn’t let you know for even a moment if it was going to be good, or bad news on the horizon for Daryl.

Pulling his finger out of his mouth with a wet sound he watched Merle a moment as he shifted on bare feet. He hadn’t predicted this situation or he’d have worn shoes, his only defence against Merle at this age had been to run away as fast as he could and not come back until the sun had gone down and Merle had gone into town to do whoever or whatever he wanted.

Not wanting to keep him waiting anymore, he gave a soft little mumble “Tooth’s loose” and folded his arms over his chest, mouth closed tightly but his tongue still poked at it unconsciously. That grin didn’t move though and Merle stepped closer, sitting on the closed lid of the toilet, camouflage pants and bare chest, the smell of stale beer on his breath and Daryl looked to the floor.

“Well then we best get rid of it then huh, don’t be expectin’ nothing from no tooth fairy, no quarter, nah you ain’t even worth a dime, now ain’t that right?” 

“But… the kids at school…” The moment Daryl spoke he realised the mistake he had made and knew what would happen now. “Don’t give a fuck about no kids at school, you don’t get shit for bits of teeth, gonna lose enough when some big kid decides to knock out them teeth, now I ain’t here to save your ass. Learn fast!”

The blow that came knocked him on his ass as he found himself leaning against the rusting tub, mouth full of blood and a tooth in his hand as Merle walked away with his cold, rasping laugh. Daryl didn’t dare say to him that that hadn’t been the one with the wobble. 

It was strange as he sat there and thought about it now his tongue moved to poke and prod at the tooth that now replaced the one that had eventually come free on it’s own. Proof once again that Merle did things his way but seldom if ever actually helped anyone when he did it. If Merle thought he was saving him now he had another thing coming.  
Fingers idly touched over one of the older scars on his back that itched under filthy clothes as he considered the truth of all of this, he was saving Merle this time, he hadn’t been surprised to find him following him when he said he was going back to the prison, and he knew he wasn’t going to be able to stay with them forever, but he also knew where he needed to be, he needed to be there with Rick and the others. Merle, if he could work Rick round to the idea, might be able to stay a while whilst they got information out of him about the governor, but Rick wouldn’t tolerate him indefinitely, Daryl’s family or not. 

Daryl knew it though, that Merle hadn’t changed at all, but the stupidest thing the Governor had done was to give a man like Merle power and then try and take it away from him. That had turned him against him and well, Daryl knew what it was like better than anyone to be stuck in front of the freight train that was his big brother when he was angry about something. 

Tilting his head back and working the crick out of his neck he looked to east watching the pale start to the dawn and hoped that there’d be something resembling luck on their side to get them back inside that prison. Merle didn’t deserve this from him he knew that much, and he knew his friends deserved better than him bringing the likes of Merle back inside to them, but right now they were fighting a battle they couldn’t afford to lose, and deep down, Daryl knew they had a better chance with Merle on their side than if they were fighting against him.

Daryl never said he was a good person, or that he did the right thing, or the kind thing, but he knew he wasn’t the same cut as his brother, and in a world like this that seemed to make him the better sort of person out there. 

It was perhaps the first thing he had ever been proud of himself about.


End file.
